The Mist 2007

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Good and creepy, The Mist comes from a Stephen King novella and is more the shape, size and quality of the recent 1408. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [This] grocery-store survival drama, dominated by Marcia Gay Harden as a shrill fundamentalist, serves as a crude but effective allegory for post-9/11 America. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: It'll look especially familiar to fans of the popular Silent Hill video games, which are said to have been inspired by King's 1980 story. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: By catching his protagonists between equally oppressive horrors, Darabont successfully finds the squelchy heart of King's story, and keeps it pumping until the ugly end. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Harden's performance lifts The Mist above the rank-and-file horror film. It's not a classic, but it is scary, and you'll definitely leave the theater thinking about the ending. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: That bloated sense of purpose turns what could have been a nifty B-movie into a strained, two-hours-plus Twilight Zone episode, and, believe me, Darabont's no Rod Serling. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: It's a horror movie of real conviction. It deserves to be a hit. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The bugs and such are gross enough -- and yet so very handsome -- in Frank Darabont's nifty, unusually spry, and almost shockingly pessimistic low-budget adaptation of [Stephen] King's 1980 extended short story. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: It's an old-fashioned spooker that gives the boogey-man more than a fighting chance, and leaves you more concerned about the evil out there than you were before you survived the experience. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Yes, something is in the mist. Lots of things are in the mist. They're gorgeous and frightening and strange and elaborately detailed, and the effects used to create them allow them to blend in seamlessly with the live action. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: There is a mind behind Frank Darabont's windy adaptation of a Stephen King novella, but it is twisted to cynical and dispiriting ends. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The Mist is a supermarket of B-movie essentials, handsomely stocked with bad science, stupid behavior, chewable lines of dialogue, religious fruitcakes, and a fine display of monsters. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The Mist builds toward a climax so wrenching that I hesitate to recommend the film, but I think Darabont earns his vision. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: An apocalypse with neither rapture nor revelations -- just endless torture and inhumanly cruel jokes. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: A combination monster/disaster movie, it explores issues as fundamentally elusive as the nature of man, the existence of God and the purpose of religion, and its conclusions aren't going to leave anybody feeling too good about whatever they believe. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: I'm scared of a lot of things. Cancer, Al Qaeda, teenagers. Land octopi aren't in my top 1000. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The Mist is one of the best screamfests I've seen in years, and a whale of an entertainment. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's laughable, and not in the good way. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A flawed, sometimes goofy, but exciting and surprisingly clever adaptation of Stephen King's horror yarn. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore to keep the viewer's flinch reflex intact. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is a competently made Horrible Things Pouncing on People Movie. If you think Frank Darabont has equaled the Shawshank and Green Mile</i track record, you will be sadly mistaken. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie has plenty of payoff, especially in the exciting and nerve-wracking final hour. You can try guessing what will happen next, but you'll probably be wrong. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Some scary movies can stand your hair on end. A few can make your skin crawl. The Mist gave me the feeling I was being scalped with an icicle. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The Shawshank Redemption, was splendid; the second, The Green Mile, wasn't; and now The Mist continues the slide. I wouldn't say this is laugh-out-loud risible, but there are definitely moments. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Even though it is mindless, at least until the provocative ending, The Mist manages to provide some decent old-school shocks. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The issues raised may make for some lively debate on the way home -- especially if it's foggy out. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: The film can't sustain this momentum en route to a highly calculated ending that departs from King's more ambiguous denouement to mostly shrug-worthy effect. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: The Mist made me want to scream, but for all the wrong reasons. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: There's a glib twist at the end, which seems out of character, and the movie could easily lose 20 minutes, maybe 40. Read more